


Avoiding Redemption

by Nixf



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: A bit of graphic violence, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anti-hero Catra, Gen, POV Catra (She-Ra), Post-Season/Series 03, Redemption, War Crimes, adora is barely present
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-04 11:14:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21196742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nixf/pseuds/Nixf
Summary: Catra discovers something she wasn't supposed to about Shadow Weaver that forces her to do what needs to be done. It's not easy saving everyone while trying to stay the villian.





	1. Chapter 1

Catra groaned as she heard the door to her quarters slide open. There was only one idiot stupid enough to dare enter her room unannounced. Hordak would never lower himself to seek her out and the other soldiers would never dare interrupt their second in command's privacy. So it was with absolutely no surprise for her to turn and see Scorpia's form standing before her, the large woman awkwardly scratching her neck as she entered.

"I thought I told everyone to stay out of my quarters," Catra asked dryly, not even bothering to hide the irritation in her voice. An awkward few seconds passed as Scorpia remained silent as if waiting for an unspoken command. Or, knowing her, a spoken one. Catra was not in the mood to wait for Scorpia to get to the point, so she forced the point."Why did you decide to annoy me tonight?"

"Ah, I just wanted to see how you've been coping, Wildcat." Catra couldn't help rolling her eyes at Scorpia's concern. Honestly, they were leaders of the Horde, not a bunch of children. They were expected to not have issues. The very existence of Scorpia's implication, that Catra needed help, was an insult of the highest order.

"Coping with what?' Catra asked cautiously, wondering if there was a wonderful helping of bad news ready to be dumped on her head again. "We basically won."

"The portal thing was kind of horrifying" Scorpia tried to interject, but Catra quickly interrupted.

She wasn't about to let her success be dragged through the mud. "The portal worked perfectly and recent intel suggests that the rebels actually lost one of their princesses, so I'd call it a success." Catra frowned as her words, Hordak hadn't entirely shared her views on the matter.

Scorpia was now somehow displaying every sign of nervousness rolled into one as she refused to even look in Catra's direction. "Well. I am sure that it was good in that way." She started before pausing, clearly struggling to work out a way to say what she wanted to say. Eventually, she just gave up trying and sat down beside Catra. She also tried putting her claw around Catra's shoulder, but she quickly stopped after a rather vicious glare. "I didn't want to tell you this, but I can't not tell you. A fair chunk of the Horde defected today. They just all collectively walked away, and we don't even have enough remaining to stop them."

Catra rolled her eyes, did Scorpia think that she was a fool. "I am aware that the weaker soldiers decided to no longer force us to deal with their deadweight. It's the opposite of an issue. We got rid of our less desirable, less motivated, soldiers, that's all. If they are not willing to be a part of the Horde that raised them, then so be it."

"We both know that we need th-" Scorpia began before being once again interrupted.

"We don't need those that abandon us!" Catra yelled, in one fluid move grabbing Scorpia by the wrist and shoving her against the wall. "If all it takes for them to leave us is a little bit of weird magic, then we don't need their useless hides in the Horde. The Horde looks out for those who have value to the Horde. Those that try and leave are worth nothing to us."

Scorpia gently pulled out of Catra's grip and tried to put on her best smile, but even Catra could see how false it was. "Catra, I see what you mean, but we probably need to at least say something to the other recruits so they don't think that we are just letting anyone leave."

"They don't matter, just like this conversation" Catra shot back, irritated at the turn that this conversation had taken. Scorpia had clearly lost all of her senses to even think of telling her what to do, much less actually do it. Scorpia was a Force Captain, a far cry from a second in command. "Shouldn't you be out there dealing with whatever and not bothering me."

"Come on Wildcat, I'm here to look out for you." Scorpia tried to interject, but Catra didn't want to hear it. In her opinion, Scorpia had been getting on her nerves ever since they'd opened the portal. Always giving unwanted useless advice on how to do stupid things. Always acting like she was so much better than Catra. Always pretending to be nice with her stupid smile and her stupid fake nice attitude. Catra knew better than pretend that Scorpia was helping, she obviously wanted to become the second in command. As far as she was concerned, they all wanted her job, and Catra was going to make sure that none of them got it.

"I don't care why you're here, I don't care about what the others are doing!" Catra shoved Scorpia away from her towards the door and shoved the metal entry open. "Either get out and stay out, or I'll do to you what I did to Entrapta and send you to Beast Island."

"Wildcat, come one. Aren't we frien-"

"We are not friends and we never will be!" Catra yelled, her fur bristling at the mere notion that Scorpia could be another backstabbing friend. She shoved her palm against Scorpia, forcing the annoying soldier out of her room with a great deal of effort. "I don't know what crazy pills you are taking, but we have never been friends. You mean nothing to me and the instant you think about getting in my way I will get rid of you as I got rid of everyone else. So get out of my quarters and never annoy me again. Do you understand? Or am I going to need to tell Hordak that we have another problem that needs to be removed."

Catra shoved her out of the room and slammed the door closed in her face, not even looking Scorpia in the face. She didn't want to see herself acting like a fool because a Force Captain was pretending the cry in front of her. Catra knew she was stronger than that.

Three hours later Catra found herself cursing Scorpia's name under her breath as she stomped around the captain's quarters in search of her missing key Force Captain. She couldn't believe that Scorpia would be so put out by their little disagreement that she would forget to do the requisition forms for the recovery effort. And yet, despite this, Catra was finding herself holding a stack of empty forms an hour after they were due, searching for her elusive employee.

"Where is she?" Catra growled as she searched, anger rolling up insider her as she dealt with yet another disappointment from the girl she had at one point been foolish enough to consider a friend. "Stupid Scorpia, I make one comment and you run off to go cry about it."

Honestly, sometimes Catra really did wonder where the Horde managed to get such an incredibly large number of soldiers that were clearly not cut out for war. However, her thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of Lonnie running up to her, out of breath.

"Commanded!" She yelled out as soon as she spotted Catra, making a mad dash towards her superior. Despite their disagreements with each other, Catra greatly appreciated Lonnie's ability to put aside personal issues and respect the chain of command. It would have been nice if Scorpia could do the same.

"What's up Lonnie? We got a few more idiots running away?" Catra asked with a laugh as she pictured some of the lower fools tripping over their bumbling selves in an effort to abandon their homes in such a foolish endeavor. "Please tell me that Kyle didn't grow a backbone and actually try."

"Commander I have something to report. Scorpia has defected." Catra froze as Lonnie's words hit her. She couldn't believe it. Yet another one of those she had almost called a friend had abandoned her. Again. And it was Scorpia.

"No, she can't have left m-!" Catra yelled before cutting herself off, realizing what she had almost said. She couldn't show weakness in front of Lonnie of all people. "Can you prove that she has defected?"

Lonnie adjusted her footing, no longer meeting Catra's eyes as she responded. "She wrote a note that said that she defected and was going to join the rebellion." Catra groaned, okay so that was pretty much impossible to argue with. "I am also here to tell you that Hordak wants your presence in the lead war room as soon as possible."

Lonnie stood still, her stance at ease as she stared at Catra expectantly. Catra rolled her eyes, sometimes Lonnie could be a little too stuck on the rules." You're dismissed, " Catra muttered, waving the Force Captain away, relieved to see her follow the instruction and leave Catra to stew with this new information.

"Great" Catra muttered to herself as she turned back towards the main hallway to head to Hordak. "This day couldn't get much worse."

"I will tear that creature apart!" Hordak was not happy, and Catra could relate. Sure the betrayal that he was ranting about hadn't actually happened. Well, to be fair he had been betrayed, but Entrapta hadn't exactly been a willing participant or conscious, but she knew it wouldn't be a smart move to actually tell Hordak that. It was easier for her to just let him think that Entrapta had betrayed him, than let slip that Catra had sent the foolish princess to her untimely end. "Is this how she repays my generosity, with a slap in the face?"

Catra wondered whether she should interrupt the complaints to find out why he had so insistently called for her but discovered that she could be patient as she watched Hordak crush the hologram's controls within his angry grip. It might be difficult to remain patient, but it was much easier than dying.

Hordak leaned over the holodeck, his eyes boring a hole in the table before him. Catra couldn't help feeling somewhat uncomfortable as the silence stretched into the double digits of seconds. Well, more uncomfortable than she normally felt around the anger prone leader. Thankfully, the silence eventually ended with Hordak turning and fixing his gaze on Catra.

"Entrapta's betrayal should not have been a surprise," He told her, a heavy tone of irritation building in his voice. "She was a directionless creature who wanted knowledge without power. A loyalty that could be lost with a mere suggestion of information is not a strong loyalty."

He reached out to Catra and rested his arm on her shoulder, Catra did her best to suppress the involuntary shudder that went through her at his touch. "There are some that are truly loyal, like you." He told her, his voice still harsh, but Catra couldn't help but feel a flush of pride at his words. "Even after I sent you to the Crimson Waste, you performed your duty and brought back what I asked. That loyalty has gotten you far."

Catra froze as she felt his grip suddenly tightened, his fingers digging through her fur and into her collarbone. She knew better than to say anything as he stepped closer and leaned close to her face.

"That loyalty has gotten you far, but your failures have begun to hold you back." He told her, his grip becoming painful as he sneered at her. "I can't tolerate failure from my highest command, and you have failed me far too many times."

"I won't fail again," Catra replied coldly, trying to pretend that there weren't bruises forming on her shoulder from the rough treatment. "I will make sure that those who betrayed us are punished for what they have done. Starting with Shadow Weaver and those that aligned with her."

"Shadow Weaver's defection was damaging to your reputation," Hordak told her as he loosened his grip and stepped back, his grip finally leaving her. Catra did her best to resist the urge to rub her shoulder. She knew that weakness was not something Hordak wanted to see in her. "If you wish to remain my second in command, you must eliminate Shadow Weaver. If you fail me again, I may need to find another who won't fail."

Catra did her best to avoid swallowing nervously as she bowed her head. "I will remove Shadow Weaver." She promised, before turning and leaving in what she hoped was a professional march. Hordak scowled as he watched her leave.

Catra was at least seventy percent sure that the main terminal in the room was already broken before she got there, but accidentally knocking an entire stack of mechanical parts onto it probably didn't help. Rolling her eyes, she shoved the damaged electronics away as she continued her search around the Black Garnet for anything that would help her. She knew that Shadow Weaver had spent most of her time in this room, and despite Catra taking over the room she knew that there were hidden secrets in it.

Unfortunately, said secrets were not making themselves known. She had searched every drawer she could find, and yet found nothing but Horde forms. It was like Shadow Weaver never actually recorded anything in her research efforts, but Catra knew better. She knew all too well that Shadow Weaver loved to record their sessions together when she was 'training' Catra. However, she just could not work out where she stored it. Angry at yet another problem holding her back, Catra shoved away from the pile of damaged electronics on the terminal, not caring as the expensive electronics impacted the floor. She was just about the give up when she caught a flash of light out of the corner of her eye.

She span to look at the source and found just a normal metal-paneled wall before her. She carefully stepped closer, wondering what had caught her eye. After a few seconds of careful inspection, she saw nothing and went to turn back away however as she moved she saw that flicker of light again. She moved closer to the wall in confusion, the diffusely reflective metallic surface wasn't right. She pushed her head against the cool metal and looked along the wall, finally spotting the problem. One of the panels wasn't aligned perfectly with the others and was reflecting a slightly different direction to the others.

She knelt down in front of the small square and worked her claws into the cracks around its edges. At first, she struggled to get any purchase at all, but then the entire section snapped open and it's contents sat ready for her to take. Catra cautiously reached into the small cavity, wary of any traps that could have been easily set by Shadow Weaver to protect whatever it was. However, there were none and soon she found herself in possession of a small container filled to the brim with data discs. Catra's only experience of them had been pointless training manuals and videos that didn't even begin to properly convey the realities of battle. She was sure that these discs contained something much more useful. These had been hidden for a reason, and Catra was going to find out why.

She glanced back at the ruined computer terminal behind her, before rolling her eyes and gathering up the discs and beginning the walk to her room. Sure, she wasn't the biggest fan of mindless research, but she was willing to make an exception for this.

Two hours later she was regretting even contemplating interest in the discs in front of her. So far the discs had mostly been filled with pointless reports about the various abilities of the recruits within the Horde. She hadn't been overly happy to find one on her own apparent lack of abilities and focus. That disc had ended up snapped into multiple shards that were completely not due to any angry outbursts from Catra. Reaching the end of her limited patience, Catra contemplated just throwing the discs out and ordering a Horde battalion to attack the nearest Rebellion aligned village and see how it went. However, she paused as she noticed an oddly colored disc near the bottom of the pile, the initial P drawn in curved red ink on the small surface. Unlike the other discs that had been mostly unmarked, it was clear that there was something special on this disc.

Catra shoved the small circle of digital data into the terminal and waited for the data to be read. Within a few seconds, the disc's data was open for her to view, and Catra couldn't help her mouth from dropping open at what she saw. The terminal's screen was flooded with schematic after schematic, each detailing the layout of what could only be taken to be a portal. However, the portal designs themselves weren't what surprised her the most, no it was the names listed alongside each design. A list of people required to make each design work. Shadow Weaver hadn't just been working on her own version of the portal in secret, she had been building her own prototypes and trying to channel the Black Garnet's energy through Horde recruits to power it.

Catra recognized the names of some of those listed and realized what this truly was. This wasn't a list of designs, this was a list of failures. One of the individuals she recognized had been a washout recruit that she had last seen been led away by Shadow Weaver. At the time she hadn't put much thought into it, more concerned with ensuring that she and Adora passed their term trials. Frowning, Catra kept shuffling through the digital schematics, noting a red cross denoting a failure date. However, as she progressed she noticed the dates slowly increase until she finally reached the final design sitting bare without a cross or date. It was clearly the final plan Shadow Weaver had designed before her involuntary removal.

She scanned the design, noting the primarily magical ritual based design, before freezing as she saw the names listed beside it. Unlike the other designs that had listed single participants and used the Black Garnet as a form of power source, this one required multiple participants and a sword of power in its center. Shadow Weaver wanted to open a portal, and she was going to use Adora and one of her sparkly princess friends to do it. Use Adora as the focus, the sword as the source, and that annoying sparkly teleporter to break the connection cleanly.

Groaning, Catra knew what she had to do, but she wasn't going to be happy about it. She had to save Adora and her idiot friends before Shadow Weaver used them to bring Hordak's army to their door. Oh well, at least she'd get the chance to kill Shadow Weaver, so it wasn't all bad news she supposed.

She pulled herself to her feet to leave and prepare for what could very well be one of the more difficult things she would ever need to accomplish but paused as she saw a flash of pink out of the corner of her eye. She turned and couldn't help smirking as she recognized the intruder. Maybe she did have someone who could help.


	2. Chapter 2

If there was one thing that Catra now knew, it was that Brightmoon certainly lived up to its name, it was irritatingly bright. To be fair, an excess of light on the battlefield did help immensely to avoid misreading attacks, but it was not something that was desired for a stealth mission. So, of course, Catra found herself trying to stealthily sneak into the brightest place in existence where even the concept of a shadow was seemingly lost on the designed. Thankfully the concept of regimented guard patterns was also lost on them and Catra easily found herself getting past the exterior guards without arousing any suspicion. To be fair, they were so far from the front lines that it would have been absurd to bother placing anything other than a vanity guard around the palace.

She needed to take down Shadow Weaver, and step one was the make sure she obtained as much information as she could about her. Adora was completely useless at keeping secrets, so naturally, her first source was Adora's room. Unfortunately, she was barely in the room before she heard the unmistakably annoying squeal of the glittery princess from outsides. Still, Catra took the advantages where they lay and soon found herself balancing on a thin marble beam overlooking Adora's room. She could hear Adora and her sickeningly happy friends talking to each other as they approached, finally, the oak doors opened to reveal her ex-friend flanked by the two irritating rebellion fighters.

"-dealing with fourteen injured fighters from this. I don't know what I am going to do with all of this!" Glimmer complained as she stomped into the room. "I don't know what she would want me to do."

"They respect you." Bow cut in, resting her arm around the stomping princess as she walked with a huff into the room, Adora following silently behind them looking rather ill about the whole ordeal. "We are all here to help you through this. You aren't expected to suddenly become a perfect ruler overnight."

"I know you'd say something like that." Glimmer groaned in response, pulling from his arms and throwing herself onto a sickeningly pink loveseat that framed the room's windows. She raised her head to look at Adora. "What do you think about this whole mess? Think they are going to ever accept that they have a teenager as their only ruler?"

Catra rolled her eyes at the stupidly inattentive blank look that adorned Adora's face, clearly, she was lost in thought and not even paying attention to the conversation at hand. Something Glimmer clearly noticed as her next call of Adora's name was exemplified with a pillow throw at her face. Finally, the ex-horde soldier reacted and punted the pillow away and show the laughing princess a jokingly stern look before relenting into a weak smile.

"Sorry about that, I just had something on my mind." She explained sheepishly.

Glimmer rolled her eyes. "I bet it was your old girlfriend again, wasn't it. Look Catra is too far gone n-"

"I know she is!" Adora cut in, a sharp tone creeping into her voice. Catra couldn't help frowning as she heard her own name come up between them. Attention was not something she wanted to deal with at this point. "Yes, I am aware that the person I previously saw as my friend decided to try to destroy the universe because she was feeling a bit petty. The person I cared about is now a horrible irredeemably evil creature that killed my best friend's mother. I know!"

Catra felt her stomach drop out of her at Adora's words. She had wanted to end all existence so everyone else could learn what it was like to lose everything they cared about, an idea that she was quickly realizing that was incredibly stupid in hindsight. However, it had never even crossed her mind that anyone would actually die due to her actions. She wanted to be the winner, nothing more. And yet here she was hiding in a roof listening to someone lamenting the loss of their family as a direct result of Catra's actions. It was not a pleasant feeling.

"Guys, I think we should concentrate on the next steps we need to take." Bow tried to keep the peace between them, but with such a defeated voice it was clear that he held no view that it would actually help. "I know it's not easy, but the Rebellion needs us to focus. We have a lot of injured fighters who need assistance and we need to do what we need to do."

"He's right," Glimmer mumbled, accepting a hug from Bow as she shuffled closer to her on the seat, letting her shove her face into his neck. "Shadow Weaver's been telling me that I need to keep my emotions in better control if I really want to become a powerful ruler."

"Is she teaching you much?" Adora asked carefully, the topic of Shadow Weaver was one that she preferred over discussing Catra's betrayal. "You looked rather tired from your session earlier today."

"Actually, yeah she has." Glimmer replied with a smile on her face. Catra narrowed her eyes at Glimmer's annoyingly appreciative tone of that horrible creature. How anyone could even pretend to appreciate Shadow Weaver's presence was not one that she could comprehend. Even Adora had admitted to Catra that she found her unsettling to be around. To find out that the stupid sparkly princess actually enjoyed her sessions made Catra feel ill. "My teleportation range has increased a lot since then and I also learned how to get a lot more force behind my sparks. Still not enough to really do much more than unbalance somewhat, but it is still kind of impressive. I will admit that it is tiring, I'll probably need to recharge soon, I feel like I'm just a couple of teleports away from taking a decent nap."

"Are you sure that we can really trust her?" Bow cut in, Catra was rather relieved that someone was willing to actually be not a complete moron in the trio before her. She would have preferred if it had been Adora. She was only one with an extensive history with Shadow Weaver and who actually knew what she had done to them as kids. "When we were fighting Catra she seemed to take a lot of enjoyment out of hurting Catra, and I am just worried that she might be teaching you something she shouldn't."

"She's good now!" Glimmer protested, huffing as if what Bow said wasn't accurate at all. Catra was struggling not to jump down at call Glimmer an idiot to her face.

"She's defected and joined our side." Adora agreed. "I know she can be rather strange and a bit harsh, but that is just how she teaches us and gets the best out of us."

"I guess..." Bow muttered, not at all looking convinced.

"Idiots!" Catra couldn't help herself exclaiming angrily at the stupidity before her. Freezing as she realized that she hadn't just yelled that in her mind and all three of them were currently staring at her in surprise. So much for the element of stealth, she had worked so hard to retain. She smiled awkwardly at them, ignoring the anger splashed over their faces as they recognized her. "Hey Adora, how's the Rebellion going?."

She had barely managed to tense up her legs to take a jump before a heavyweight slammed down on top of her, pinning her against the marble support. Glimmer had teleported onto her in an effort to restrain her. Two could play at that game. Catra threw herself as hard as she could towards her left, twisting as she did so, unbalancing the precariously placed Glimmer and providing her just enough clearance to provide a jab into the princess' ribs. Glimmer let out a rather loud yelp as the two fell from their perch and crashed onto the windowsill. Catra tried to free herself from Glimmer's grasp but the teleporting irritation would not release herself. So she instead pulled away before throwing her entire weight at the princess. Glimmer threw out an arm to try and counter Catra's push but felt herself falling backward and out the window. Yelling angrily, Glimmer threw out her hands and grasped onto the only thing nearby, Catra's arm, pulling her out the window alongside the princess.

Catra had a brief instant where she got to become rather annoyed with the construction of Brightmoon seemingly encouraging the layout of incredibly high windows without proper railings. Of course, she soon found herself yelling alongside Glimmer as they both plummeted to their deaths. Thankfully Glimmer soon came to her senses and Catra felt the strange sensation of magic before finding herself sitting on the ground blinking in confusion at the sudden change.

"Okay, so that was a bit stupid." Glimmer's tired voice came from beside Catra, teleportation clearly taking a toll on the already magically exhausted princess. "I hope you're thankful I saved your stupid life."

Catra glanced back up at the Brightmoon tower before her to see Adora and Bow standing at the window staring down at them in surprise, then back at the exhausted form that was Glimmer sitting beside her. On one hand, she did owe Glimmer for saving her. On the other hand, she wasn't the good guy and she didn't need to be fair. On the other, other hand, maybe it was time to play both sides.

"Did you really think that I would be thankful?" She asked with a sneer as she pulled herself to her feet and looked down at the tired princess. Smirking to herself she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small taser. "How about I make a counteroffer? Enslavement."

Before Glimmer could even react, Catra showed the charged device violently into her side, forcing a horrific amount of electrical energy into the downed princess. Glimmer spasmed for a few seconds before collapsing in a heap, unconscious from the pain that had just coursed through every nerve she possessed. Catra leaned over and pulled Glimmer over her shoulder before running into the Whispering Woods. For a moment she felt a spike of guilt at effectively capturing someone who had only been in that position to help her, but she quickly shoved away that thought and replaced it with another. Shadow Weaver wanted Glimmer's abilities to open a portal after all, so maybe it really was in Glimmer's best interest to be taken away before the evil sorcerer could get her grubby claws into her. So really she was doing this for Glimmer's benefit, and if it just so happened to also aid Catra in her plans, then who was she to argue.

If Shadow Weaver wanted to create that portal, she would need to go to the Fright Zone and get her princess battery back, forcing her to be exactly where Catra wanted her to be. Maybe this insane plan would actually work.

Catra watched in silent amusement as Glimmer threw yet another sparkly attack against the green field that separated them. You'd think that after the first seventeen attempts ended in abject failure she would learn, but Catra wasn't surprised to discover that she just kept trying anyway. Ignoring reality and continuing on regardless, why did Glimmer have to become yet another reminder to Catra of Adora. Finally, Glimmer let out a yell of frustration and sat down heavily, leaning against one of the prison block's walls, too exhausted to try again.

"Aww, already giving up?" Catra teased, stepping closer to the green barrier that separated them. She couldn't help letting out a laugh and the look of anger cast her way. "Don't worry. I'm sure your best friends are heading here right now to come to get you. It's just a pity you won't be around for them to find."

"They will stop you." Glimmer yelled, pulling herself to her feet and standing as close as she dared to the barrier. "They will get me out of here, and when they do. I will give you what you deserve. You are your stupid horde killed my mother."

Catra smirk dropped from her face and she turned her back on the princess just in time to see Lonnie approaching. Closing her eyes for a brief moment to pull her mind back to where it needed to be, she stepped forward to greet her. "Let me guess, Adora has been spotted?"

"It's exactly what you predicted would happen. Scorpia even joined them. " Lonnie told her, smiling as she spoke. Of all the soldiers within the Horde, Catra had never really managed to get a proper understanding of what Lonnie tick. Kyle wanted to be useful. Octavia wanted to kill. Regelio wanted Kyle. They were all incredibly obvious. Lonnie, on the other hand, seemed to jump between wanting power, wanting to protect her team, wanting to be nice, and the list went on. Unfortunately, Catra's plan required absolute loyalty from Lonnie or everything could quickly turn sour.

"Good." Catra shoved her hand against the door's controls and Glimmer collapsed at her feet in surprise. Lonnie didn't give her any time to react to her sudden freedom, snapping some black garnet powered restraints around the princess's arms and forcing her back to her feet. "You remember your orders I assume. Make sure you follow them exactly as I told you. We can't afford to go off script with this."

"I know what you want Catra." Lonnie rolled her eyes in response. Pulling Glimmer towards the transport elevator. "I'm not sure it's a good idea, Hordak won't be happy if he finds out what you're planning."

Catra waved her hand to dismiss Lonnie's concerns. "It's not his problem. I'll make sure Hordak gets what he needs. You just make sure you follow my orders to the letter and there won't be a problem."

Lonnie paused and turned back to Catra. "You realize he will kill you if he finds out." She asked carefully, having learned the hard way that Catra's anger was something to be avoided where possible. "He sees her as a valuable resource, and you're getting rid of that resource. Prisoners are valuable, and princesses are doubly so."

"That's my problem, not yours." Catra reminded her, her fur bristling in irritation. "Just do what I tell you."

"Fine," Lonnie responded, her tone making it clear how strongly she disagreed with Catra's plan. She turned back to the elevator and shoved the princess on it, the hard metal doors sliding shut behind her with an air of finality. Catra smiled as soon as the door shut. With Glimmer out of the picture she only needed to worry about Adora and her archer friend getting in the way of her revenge. Assuming Scorpia was as predictable as Catra hoped.

There were few places in which Catra could ever feel comfortable. Some of her underlings had the insane idea that the only time she ever felt comfortable was on the battlefield throwing punches at She-Ra. It was all false of course, she was built for stealth and subterfuge, not outright fighting. The only place she ever really felt at peace was hidden from view obscured in shadow. So it really should not have been a surprise for anyone that, as soon as Adora was spotted transformed and heading towards the Fright Zone with Shadow Weaver and an archer, Catra went missing. It had taken a fair amount of convincing from Catra's side but making sure that the defenses were weak enough to funnel the attacking force towards the prison was required to make sure that everything worked out how it was supposed to work out. Hordak had not been overly interested in the idea of sacrificing resources just to position his opponents where he needed but instead pretending it was a diversion tactic soon got him agreeing to it.

Catra scampered through the pipework that made up the ceiling of the Fright Zone's internal corridors, trailing behind the destruction that was being produced by Adora's magical sword of cheating. Catra slowed her pace as she managed to stealthily get above the four intruders. Adora had a look of determination plastered across her face, Scorpia looked determined, Bow merely looked slightly ill, and Shadow Weaver had probably one of the most horrible things that Catra could ever picture. A smile. The horrible witch was enjoying the chaos around her.

"Okay Glimmer is likely held in the prison block," Adora called out, running towards the end of the hallway. "I hope she is okay."

"She will be okay," Bow promised, though even Catra could pickup the panic that was in his voice. In Catra's opinion, the boy really did hold his heart on his sleeve far too much. She was definitely going to have to remember that for later. Catra didn't have time to exploit the archer's emotions, she was finally approaching one of the more decisive points in the mess of a plan. If this worked then the remainder of the pieces should mostly fall into place, but if it didn't then there wouldn't be many ways to get it back on track.

"Remember we have to be quick, the sensors in this area will have already picked up our presence," Scorpia advised, stalking ahead of the pack and keeping a close eye on her surroundings. She paused as she reached a corner in the hallway, carefully peeking around the edge, the others pausing alongside her. "I'd prefer to not meet anyone I know here."

"Thank you for joining us," Adora told Scorpia quietly. "Without you, I don't think we would have gotten anywhere close to here."

"Enough pleasantries, we have a resource we need to retrieve." Shadow Weaver cut in abruptly, shoving past their frozen forms and into the adjoining hallway in the opposite direction to the prison block.

"Wait, where are you going?" Scorpia called out, clearly confused as to why she was so clearly ignoring her direction.

"Glimmer won't be in the prison," Shadow Weaver told her as if explaining to an idiot. Catra winced as she could feel herself relate far too well, Scorpia could sometimes really irritate her as well. "There is only one place in the Fright Zone that can hold a prisoner of her magical ability. The Black Garnet is the only element with enough power to restrain her."

Hook line and sinker, Catra smirked as Shadow Weaver did exactly as she hoped that she would. She quickly ducked away as the four below her made their way towards what had once been Shadow Weaver's personal laboratory and the home of the Black Garnet. Much more importantly, it was also most assuredly not containing a princess ready to be saved. She scampered through the roof space as quickly as she could, hearing the crashing sounds of battle as the four heroes smashed their way through a series of robotic distractions. She slammed through the roof space and landed in front of the Black Garnet, barely able to get to her feet before the doors behind her smashed open in what could only be viewed as an excessive amount of magical energy.

Catra turned and smirked as Adora was the first to step into the room, her sword drawn and her transformed form standing tall and serious. Catra backed up to give them a little space and stood tall before her. The two stared at one another as they sized up the battle ahead, though Catra knew that if this all worked then there wasn't going to be one. Of course Shadow Weaver, like always, has to completely ruin the moment by shoving Adora out of the way and getting up in Catra's face. Magical energy from the Black Garnet from behind her sparking as if called to its old master. Scorpia and Bow trailed in behind her and thankfully remained silent.

"Oh Catra, are you here to fail again?" Shadow Weaver asked with a sneer. Adora frowned somewhat at Shadow Weaver's words, but quickly caught herself and thrust her sword out threateningly as Catra. "We're only here for the princess, and once again you've decided to get in our way. Is there no end to the irritation that you will bring me? It's time you learned to listen to your betters and stop being such an incredible disappointment."

Catra couldn't help her fur rising in irritation at her words. "If you're here for sparkles, you're too late." She told them smugly, tensing as she prepared for the hardest part of this whole mess. "I made sure she would never bother me again, permanently."

"You killed her!" Shadow Weaver screeched, her hand moving furiously as the Black Garnet's energy cracked violently from behind Catra. "Do you even know what you have done? That girl had more power than you will ever know, all I needed to do was capture just a small amount of it and we could have ended this war and taken it for ourselves. But you just had to be a detriment to all that exists. There was a reason that your family didn't want you."

"Harsh much. Just because I did to your little sparkly battery what you tried to do to me is no reason to hate me. I learned from the best." Catra teased, enjoying the moment of power over Shadow Weaver. "She isn't the first. I did exactly the same to Entrapta and Emily."

"You did to Glimmer what you did to Entrapta and Emily?" Scorpia asked, shooting Catra an odd look. Catra smirked, it was about time that she caught on to what was going on. In an instant, Scorpia reacted and Shadow Weaver was knocked to the floor out cold from Scorpia's sudden attack. Adora and Bow jumped back, Adora swiping her sword up defensively to separate herself from the new threat.

Catra stepped forward, uncaring for the shaky sword held in her face. She looked down at Shadow Weaver's unconscious form. A horrible part of herself wished that she could have been conscious of this part, but the result was going to be the same either way. She knelt down and grabbed Shadow Weaver's head, pulling her upward and making her unconscious head face the supposed heroes.

"We both know the world will be a better place without her," Catra told them coldly, sliding her claws from one hand to the chin of the unconscious captive. She sighed and turned away from Shadow Weaver's form and faced Adora. "You know exactly what I am about to do. I told you I would do it, and we both know that she deserves even less than this."

"She doesn't deserve to die," Adora pleaded, the sword in her hand quivering as the great She-Ra failed to keep her emotions in check. "I know she hurt you, but she was trying to turn over a new leaf. She was trying to be forgiven."

"You make a good counterpoint," Catra shrugged as she turned back to Shadow Weaver, her claws now wrapped around her neck. "Pity I don't care."

Blood sprayed on the floor as Catra's claws shoved deep into the unconscious woman's neck, Adora and Bow screamed in surprise. Scorpia's response was significantly more subdued, merely sighing at the impulsive action of her old friend.

"You killed her!" Bow yelled, cowering behind Adora's form. Adora froze as she watched Shadow Weaver's deceased form slump to the ground, feeling herself grow nauseous at what she had just witnessed. However, she wasn't given a chance to even react before he felt herself be shoved away and her sword torn from her grip. She floundered, spinning around to find herself facing Lonnie before she could even react she was on the floor and her sword was in Lonnie's hands.

Bow tried to pull an arrow out of his quiver before Glimmer was standing before him, her tight grip stopping him. "Glimmer, I have to s-" He tried to argue before Glimmer shoved her hand over his mouth.

"Let Lonnie have the sword." Glimmer commanded him, before slowly releasing him and stepping back. Her hands still held out at the ready to stop Bow if needed.

"You're on their side?" Bow asked, horrified that the girl he had grown up with would so willingly betray all of Eternia.

"She's not on my side, you idiot." Catra cut in, stepping over the lifeless corse that had once been Shadow Weaver. "Your sparkly girlfriend hates my guts and would never want to be anywhere near me if she could avoid it. She's helping us because she knows that we have a common enemy."

"You're really not helping!" Glimmer shot back and Catra before turning back to Bow. "Look, when Catra captured me she let slip that she didn't capture me to stop the Rebellion. We're not her target and we both want the same thing, to protect Eternia. So we're going to work together and work out if we're going to be enemies afterward. Okay?"

Bow frowned, before nodding. "Okay, Glimmer. If you trust her, even after that, then I just have to believe that you are right." He flinched as he glanced down at Shadow Weaver's body. "Can we not discuss this here?"

"You know, I'm surprised that one of the best fighters in the Rebellion isn't used to death yet," Catra muttered dryly as she stepped over to Lonnie, wordlessly accepting the sword and weighing it in her hands. "Glimmer, you make sure Adora and whatever his name is don't get in the way. If we're lucky this will be sorted out without any more pointless losses." Glimmer merely nodded and turned to stand over Adora, who looked completely at a loss as to why Glimmer would ever align herself with the girl who killed her mother.


	3. Chapter 3

Catra broke out into a sprint as soon as she was out of the room, Lonnie close behind her to cover her in case the plan fell apart. They may have managed to get Glimmer on their side for now, but there was a very real chance that her resolve would fall at the words of her friends. Catra knew that the annoyingly glittery princess was strong-willed, but she also knew that if the princess worked out what she was doing then the whole thing would fall apart.

"Is the portal setup exactly how she said?" Catra called back to Lonnie as the dashed through the hallways that seemed to stretch on forever. A part of Catra regretted having the lead Adora and her friends so far away, but they had to ensure privacy. "If this isn't perfect, we're going to destroy everything instead of saving it."

"It's perfect, she made sure of it," Lonnie called back, her voice not even betraying the merest hint of tiredness despite the running. "You should have let me tell Glimmer what you are planning to do. She nearly didn't believe me until i-"

"She hears what she needs to hear and nothing else." Catra cut back angrily, Lonnie was asking questions and that was not something that Catra would stand for. "If she knew everything, she'd try to stop up or want to do a noble sacrifice or something stupid. Stick to the plan, Lonnie"

"I would if you bothered to even tell me all of it," Lonnie complained right back, the two were finally neck and neck as they neared their final target. The two quickly pulled to a stop outside of Hordak's chambers, Lonnie went to open the doors but was stopped by a tight hold from Catra.

"You'll understand later why I couldn't tell you," Catra told her, shrugging as best she could. "For now, just try and trust me as much as you can." And with that, she shoved open the doors and strutted inside, putting on her best face.

"You really don't make that easy," Lonnie muttered, this stupid idea was either going to work or get them all killed.

"Hordak!" Catra called out as she entered. "I've got your key back after you lost it." She tossed the sword to the ground carelessly, well as carelessly as one could when trying to drop a fifteen-pound magical sword that held all of life's damnation. In truth, she did want to be somewhat careful with it, but she had to make sure that Hordak saw her as an impulsive fool. She barely had any reason to voluntarily do anything for him after he betrayed her, but he seemed to assume that she was so dependant on him that she would do anything. It was his mistake to make, and probably one of the last ones she would allow. "Let's get that portal open before the annoying ones get here."

Hordak smiled as he knelt down to pick up the immortal blade of power, Catra tried her best to look proud of her lack of accomplishment. She was relieved that at least Lonnie hadn't followed her into the chamber, then again Catra was missing the backup that Lonnie's presence would have given her. "Finally, I can take over Eternia. Startup the portal Entrapta."

"Sure thing." Entrapta chuckled as she lowered herself down from the ceiling and began fiddling with the sword, covering it with all manner of wire work and craft. "Oh, hey Catra. Thanks for the trip outside."

Catra winced at those words. To be honest, she had been surprised to see Entrapta still hanging around the Fright Zone after she had demanded that the princess be taken the Beast Island to die. Of course, Entrapta was entirely oblivious to the concept of being captured. Somehow she had managed to remove herself from the transport's restraints and turned it around in search of more technology. Catra was rather relieved afterward to know that Kyle had been entirely unequipped to deal with Entrapta. Thankfully Entrapta seemed to take the casual betrayal in stride and just ignore it in favor of playing with first one's tech.

On the more negative side of things, there was one teensy little issue with Catra's plan. Entrapta had taken one look at the portal designs Catra had stolen from Shadow Weaver and realized that to open the portal would easily lead to the death of anyone nearby. Naturally, she had made modifications to make the portal safer, which had given Catra a problem. She knew that if she failed to get rid of Hordak, then he could easily reopen the portal and doom them all anyway. Somehow she needed to convince Entrapta to betray Hordak, or at least do something to ensure that stopped him permanently.

"So what's going to happen when the portal opens?" Catra asked in mock curiosity, keeping a careful watch on Entrapta as the princess blatantly listened in on the conversation. "Are we going to get a bunch of back-ups to force the Rebellion to give up?"

Hordak smirked as he stood before the portal, the final touches falling into place as Entrapta worked in front of him. "It's not going to be a mere show of force, we're going to wipe out everyone else on the planet." He told them simply, keeping a hungry eye on where the portal would soon stand. There was a brief pause as Entrapta froze at Hordak's words before she returned to work. Catra made sure the keep her own smirk off her face as she saw the opening. Entrapta was driven by a desire for information, so all Catra had to do was make Hordak admit to taking that away.

"Well hurry up then. I can't wait to lead my own army." Catra impatiently mock begged as she stood closer to Entrapta, keeping her eyes on the princess and away from Hordak. "We storm the rebellion, take all of their stuff back here and rule Eternia."

"Oh, we aren't going to capture anything," Hordak responded. "The army will remove Brightmoon from existence, eradicate everything there, and make it our territory. However, there is one thing that you don't seem to have realized." Entrapta had stopped working by this point and was shooting Hordak a weirdly blank stare as she mentally ran over his words. Catra froze as Hordak locked his eyes on Catra, thankfully not noticing Entrapta pausing her work.

"There is no place for a failure like you in the Horde's future." He told her coldly, pointing to the door of his chambers. "You should return to your quarters, and maybe I'll allow you to live past tomorrow."

Catra shot him a glare, but gave a bow and stiffly marched from the room, her ear twitching as she heard Entrapta return to work. As soon as the doors closed behind her she fell to her knees and pulled out a small communications pad, Lonnie leaning over beside her to watch as well as they watched a camera feed of the room provided courtesy of Entrapta's Emily.

"What do you think our chances are?" Lonnie asked nervously, she was probably one of the few who truly understood exactly what was at stake.

"Not as good as I wanted," Catra muttered darkly, not even blinking as she watched the two complete their final preparations to open the portal and bring about Enternia's end. "Entrapta is difficult to read at the best of times and isn't driven by much. If she lets that portal open as it is meant to, then we're all gone. Now shut up. They are about to open it."

"Ten seconds before we find out if we are screwed," Lonnie muttered. "So many things I wish I could have done."

"You're not going to kiss me, are you?" Catra stuck out her tongue in mock disgust.

"Haha, I'm not Adora" Lonnie shoved Catra, however, whatever she was going to say next was lost as an almighty explosion rocked the building, the wall beside them buckling under the intense pressure. They quickly scrambled to their feet, the camera feed predictably completely cut off as soon as the portal was opened. "Okay, time to see how dead we're going to be."

They shoved open the door and were nearly thrown to the ground again as an almighty wind hammered through the air past them, the portal was indeed open. They were forced to crawl into the room to keep themselves from flying away, energy firing over their heads as the unstable vortex powered itself overhead. Catra couldn't help rolling her eyes as she spotted Entapta sitting merrily next to the portal, her attention locked in amazement on the amazing sight before her.

"Where is Hordak?" Catra yelled out over the roar of the portal as she struggled to get closer to the princess.

Entrapta turned and gave a shrug. "The Portal was a lot more powerful than I expected" She responded casually, her voice barely audible over the rumbling. "He decided to stand in the wrong place and I didn't warn him." Catra let out the breath she had been nervously holding, now she was just down to one problem. A giant portal that combined science and magic in an unholy union of universe ending potential.

"How long until they breach the portal?" Catra asked hurriedly, trying her best to move as close as she dared.

"We have precisely an amount of time between a few seconds to a few hours," Entrapta responded distantly, still engrossed in the events before her, a tuft of hair furiously scribbling on a notepad beside her in a desperate attempt to capture the myriad of observations before her. However, she faulted as tore her eyes away from the portal to look at Catra with some level of concern. "Are you sure you want to do this? We never got strong enough information for the experimental model to determine the survivability ratio. I can't tell if you'll have a reasonable chance of continued existence if you enter."

"Is it ready?" Catra asked nervously, eyeing the portal with no small amount of trepidation.

Entrapta's hair reached out to Catra, a black sphere held within the hairy embrace. "Yep. Just make sure you trigger it and throw it into the rift and it should seal it and send a reflective force back through the portal to the source."

"What is she talking about?" Lonnie called out from the door, unable to progress closer into the room as the rush of air buffeted against her. "You told me Entrapta was just going to close the portal using science stuff."

Catra winced, okay so she may have not told Lonnie absolutely everything she was planning on doing. She really needed to keep a better track of who she was lying to, or she would need to if she survived this mess. She carefully took the black sphere from Entrapta's hairy hold. "Look the idea's sound. Entrapta is just being a bit pessimistic." Catra countered casually as if she wasn't facing down a magical portal that is currently throwing an almighty gale at anyone who stood nearby. "I'll just jump in, close the portal, and then jump out. Easy."

"We are meant to wait for Glimmer." Entrapta pointed out. "The plan relies on her being ab-"

"Look we don't really have time. So I'm going to seal the portal. If Glimmer can help, that's fine, but I don't have time to wait." Catra told her abruptly. She pulled herself to her feet and forced her way towards the portal, the wind reaching insane speeds as she got within an arm's reach of the void. She paused and glanced at Entrapta, frowning at the princess's look of worry. "I'll be fine, don't worry about it." She did her best to placate Entrapta, before throwing herself forward and allowing herself to be swallowed up into the white.

Surrounded by nothing but pure light, Catra could already feel the mother of all headaches worming its way through her mind. She reached out her arm, and would herself surprised to see it stretch out before her almost normally. Frowning she studied her fingers, waving them in front of her face as she watched the light play off them. Everything felt decidedly odd, not unpleasant in any describable way. Instead, everything just felt too distant and faint, like reality itself, wasn't bothering to properly convey reality to her, which was probably true she noted to herself. The cool metallic black surface of the machine that Entrapta had given her seemed to be an almost grey hue instead of the black it should have been.

"Okay, find the rift, seal the rift, save reality," Catra muttered to herself as she stepped into the nothingness. Entrapta had been very insistent that she repeat her mission verbally to avoid forgetting it. At the time Catra had thought that it had all seemed rather silly to repeat such a simple plan, but as she stepped forward and felt her very sense of self twist around her she realized that the guidance had been very much needed. "Find the rift, seal the rift, save reality."

She was definitely going to get sick of those words soon enough. The plan was simple enough, find the rift that pulled her into this white hell and seal it. She forced herself to keep moving into nothingness, her very sense of self spreading out as if she could sense others around. Catra froze as she felt something hovering just outside her view. It was almost like she could feel that something was hovering in the corner of her eye. There was something out there, and it wasn't just the rift. Something that was clearly spying on her.

"Whoever or whatever you are, stop hiding and get over here!" Catra yelled out into the brightness. She saw a flash out of the corner of her once again and took off at a sprint towards the flicker. The brightness around her shifted and she saw the world strangely flex around the nothingness of light, and with a flicker, she realized that whatever it was was not incredibly close. She threw herself towards it and let out a yelp as she collided with something much softer than she had been expecting.

The world twisted around her and suddenly the eye-piercing brightness shot away and she instead found herself lying in a pile of limbs on a soft patch of grass. She quickly scrambled back to her feet and retrieved Entrapta's device that had almost rolled away. The brightness was still there, but it was a distance away, surrounding her in a pure white wall in a circle around her patch of grass. She looked down and was surprised to see a very familiar face looking up and her with a strangely confused expression.

"Oh great, it's sparkle's mom," Catra complained. Just her luck, she threw herself into a portal and found herself stuck with Angella, the ex-queen of the Rebellion. An ex-queen that was only here due to the direct actions of Catra. This meeting was going to be incredibly awkward. It didn't help that she was going to be stuck here for all eternity. "Look, I don't want to talk to you, just point me to the rift and get out of my way."

"Why are you here?" Angella asked, her voice cold as she moved closer, though Catra could tell from her poor stance that she wasn't a significant threat to her. How she had managed to get to be the queen of an enemy of the Horde was beyond Catra?

"I'm here to permanently seal the rift. I just need to find the rift and throw this whatever in to seal the rift." She told the ex-leader bitterly, waving the black sphere in front of her as she found herself becoming more and more irritated by the queen's presence. "So either show me or get out of my way."

"What are you going to do to it?" Angella asked as she narrowed her eyes at Catra, still not trusting the horde leader. "Trying to destroy the universe again?"

Catra wasn't sure how she managed to resist taking a swipe at the queen at that point. Somehow she swallowed down her anger and merely put on her best face. "I need to find the rift so I can seal it and make sure that it gets sealed before Hordak can bring through an army that will eliminate all of Eternia." She angrily told Angella, her fists tensing as she struggled to keep her emotions in check. She had to find the rift soon. "I don't have long before the army makes their way through the portal."

"Why would you care about Eternia?" Angella asked coldly. "You already tried to destroy it once before. How do I know that you aren't just here to finish the job?"

Catra swore to herself. Just what she needed when under a time crunch, an idiot who kept on blatantly ignoring the most obvious. "I don't know about you, but I can't rule over a planet when it ceases to exist. You may not care, but I actually do quite like existing."

"And yet you're in the rift alongside me with no escape." Angella pointed out.

"Do you honestly think that I don't have a plan here?" Catra rolled her eyes. "Look, I am here to stop Hordak. Whatever my actual motivations or whatever, we both want the same thing. So stop stopping me and just point me at the stupid rift so I can seal it already."

There was a pregnant pause as Angella mentally rolled through Catra's words before she sighed and nodded. "Okay, just prepare yourself. This can be a little disorientating." Catra winced as Angella rested her hand on Catra's shoulder, though she knew that it wasn't an offensive attack based on the pathetic stance the queen had taken. In the non-existence that they were stranded, traveling wasn't a physical event. In one instance Catra was standing in some soft grassy field, and in the next, she was standing on a stone road with a flickering black tear in reality before herself. The sudden abrupt change nearly made her lose her balance if it wasn't for the balancing hold of the queen. As soon as she regained her sense of self she pulled from her grip and stood before the portal.

"What does that thing actually do?" Angella asked as Catra cautiously stepped closer to the rift.

"Entrapta said it is meant to capture the energy expelled by the rift and then shoot it back in an instant to overload the rift and reflect the energy back through the portal to wherever the other side originates." Catra paused as she looked at the strange machine in her grasp. "I'll be honest. I really don't have any clue how it works. Entrapta just said to make sure if it as close as possible to the rift before arming it, and that anything left within here will cease to be within a minute." Catra mentally winced as she realized what she had just said. Did she really have to tell the queen that arming it was effectively a death sentence, especially if the second half of her plan didn't work out?

"So we die, but Eternia is safe?" Angella asked quietly as she stepped closer to Catra, who was now kneeling in front of the rift, fiddling with the device before her.

Catra sighed and turned back to Angella. "I had a plan to escape, but it didn't really work out Also I kind of didn't know you would be here. Sort of thought you were already dead." Catra shook her head to clear the thoughts that span around from that idea. "It doesn't matter, we need to do this. If we don't there won't even be a world to go back to anyway."

Catra reached out for the device, but before she could trigger it, she heard a scream from behind her. She spun around and froze as the all too familiar form of Glimmer appeared before her from out of the pure lightness that surrounded them. The princess was currently throwing her arms around her mother, blabbering out something about it being so long since they last talked.

"What are you doing here?" Catra asked, horrified that the princess had been so unbelievably stupid as to enter the portal herself. "Do you have some kind of death wish?"

"I can teleport you, idiot" Glimmer told her with a smile, as she pulled out of her mother's embrace to shoot Catra a light glare. "I didn't just jump in here on a whim. Entrapta already worked it out. I've got enough for a decent jump with another person. This was basically your plan all along, wasn't it?"

"I didn't really think beyond the whole, killing Hordak and Shadow Weaver thing to be honest," Catra admitted awkwardly, admitting that this had been pretty much a suicide mission wasn't really something she wanted to do. In truth, she wasn't really sure if she even wanted to come back. It wasn't like there was much waiting for her outside, she had pretty much burned every bridge to get to this point. "Shadow Weaver had some ideas about teleporting in and out of the void, but I don't think she ever actually had any solid evidence that it would work. You realize that you're crazy to even attempt what you just did, right?"

"It worked, didn't it?" Glimmer cheered, pulling her mother into another embrace. "We even found mom."

"It's so good to see that you're okay." Angella agreed, returning her daughter's hug just as tightly as Glimmer. Catra groaned as she was forced to watch them get all sickeningly nice to each other in front of her. Couldn't they just go away and stop annoying her so much. "Are you up for a teleport to get us out of here?"

Glimmer froze and her face locked into an awkward smile as she pulled away from her mother. "Well, the distance was quite a bit further than I thought. I should be able to take you back."

"And Catra?" Angella asked, her voice lowering to try and reduce Catra's ability to hear her, not that it did much to actually stop her from eavesdropping. "She came here to sacrifice herself for Eternia. She deserves a trip home as well."

"I'm not sure if I have more than a single trip left in me." Glimmer replied with a wince, glancing over at Catra as if she couldn't hear their whispered conversation from only a few strides away. "I'm taking you back."

"Would you two please shut off and sparkle back home already?" Cantra turned and yelled at them, beyond frustrated with the pointlessness of their conversation. She pulled herself back to her feet and stalked over the Glimmer. "Don't pretend for a second that we all don't already know which of us you're going to take back. So stop rubbing it in and get out of here."

"Well forgive me if leaving you to die isn't an easy choice for me!" Glimmer shot back just as aggressively. "Some of us actually care when people die. Of course, I'm taking mom back, but it still doesn't feel right to leave you here."

"Look just grab your mother and go," Catra yelled as Glimmer, throwing a punch at Glimmer that was poorly deflected by the surprised princess. "I am not letting my last few moments of existence tainted by your stupid voice. Stop being a useless child playing pretend soldier. For once in your life act like the adult you're meant to be and do what you're meant to do."

Glimmer lowered her eyes in anger, grabbing her mother in a tight grip. "Fine, if that is what you want, so be it." And with those words, the princess and queen disappeared in a flicker of power. Leaving Catra behind, again.

Catra let herself settle back down beside the rift, reaching out for Entrapta's device before her. She looked at the object that was going to spell her doom. "Well, there's not much point in delaying the inevitable." She muttered to herself bitterly as she reached out and locked her hands around the black orb, its cool metal one of the few things she could still feel in this quasi-non-existence. Her claws tensed and with a sharp tug, the sphere split open smoothly, a pale green glow trailing through the joins as the device quietly hummed to life. The inevitable had begun.

Sitting back from the orb before her, Catra watched as the small device twisted and flexed before her. Slowly spinning towards her ultimate end. "This isn't how I thought I'd go out, Adora." She muttered into the nothingness that surrounded her. "I thought it would be in a blaze of glory on the battlefield, or Shadow Weaver would lose control when disciplining me. Didn't think I'd be dumb enough to sacrifice myself to save Eternia."

She chuckled to herself at the bitterness of it all. "Okay, I have to admit. I'm not here out of the goodness of my heart or whatever rubbish those stupid princesses say. You already know why I am here. I want to take you down, Adora." Catra couldn't keep the smirk off her face as she said those words. Sure Adora wasn't here for Catra to rub this in her face, but it still felt sweet that she got to take this from her. "You left me when you joined that stupid princesses tea party, so I am going to make you see how little they actually want you. They only put up with you because of that stupid sword, so if I take away your reason for welding it, then you're going to find out exactly how little they want you. "

" Sure, I had to save all of reality to do it, but it's a small price to pay for a bit of revenge. " Catra sighed as she looked back at the spinning orb, noting that the color had turned a violent red as she sat there distracted. Entrapta had warned her that when it got to that stage there would be mere seconds left to escape. Catra didn't bother moving, there was nowhere for her to even escape to anyway.

She felt the power build, and she wiped her eyes as her vision began to blur. She wasn't going to let herself go while crying, she was going to be the strongest, not the most pathetic. The power before her grew and grew as she saw her life leave her. No escape, no reason. No reality. It was just sitting there, teasing her future non-existence.

Catra couldn't ignore that the world around her was screaming, and her eyes just would not remain clear, no matter how much she rubbed them. "I don't want to die." She tried to say, but it was more of a sob. This was her end, and she just wasn't ready. Not that the universe had ever cared before. Life always took what she wanted, her life was just yet another impossible theft in her life. She hated this.

The volume around her hit a fever pitch as reality itself seemed to warp and spin around her, though whether that was her emotional state or the end of reality, she couldn't work out which. She could have sworn that she could even hear a voice yelling out at her. She felt a hand touch her and she recoiled, trying to get away, but it wouldn't release its grip. She thrashed around, but the grip wouldn't leave her. She screamed as reality well apart around her and then she felt nothing,

Then reality span and she violently slammed into the ground. The pain returned.


	4. Chapter 4

Cata was no stranger to imprisonment. The Fright Zone's prison cells were depressingly drab constructions where the spirit of a soldier goes to die and Catra had been forced to spend time there in solitary confinement more than a few times for supposedly 'negative behaviors'. However this time she wasn't stuck in a concrete cell block magically tethered to the wall, instead, she found herself sitting on an incredibly comfortable pillow in the middle of what Glimmer had called a Brightmoon prison cell, but was clearly just a guest room with the curtain's closed. If anything this was probably the most luxurious room that she had ever gotten the chance to enjoy.

Unfortunately, despite the rather luxurious creature comforts that her capture provided her, she couldn't bring herself to actually enjoy any of them. Her shoulder was throwing spikes of pain into her every time she so much as moved it, and the rest of her didn't exactly feel particularly amazing either. Though to be honest, the physical discomfort wasn't the real reason she wasn't able to properly enjoy the comfortable room.

It was rather difficult to enjoy yourself while you're waiting to be executed. To be fair, Glimmer hadn't mentioned anything about killing her. To be even fairer, the Rebellion had never harmed a captive even when they did manage to capture one. To be totally fair, they didn't even kill Shadow Weaver despite everything she had done, Catra had basically been forced to sort that one out for them. Okay so maybe them just sentencing her to death was not entirely a certainty, but eternal imprisonment was not really much of an improvement.

Catra looked back at the closed doors, wondering how long until the sparkle queen turned up and finally finished this whole stupid thing. Somehow the irritating brat had managed to find the one thing that Catra hated the most, she was forcing her to wait patiently. Clearly, they all hated her. Her ears flicked as she heard the telltale steps of someone pausing outside the chamber, their footsteps too light to be a guard or Adora. She rolled her eyes and pulled herself into a more professional sitting position, trying to ignore the stabbing pains coming from her ribs. She wasn't going to give them to reward of showing weakness. She was the winner in all of this and she was going to make damn sure that they knew it.

The doors finally opened wide and Catra couldn't help taking in a shaking breathe as she saw the immortal figure of Queen Angella entering proudly, somehow not looking like she had been thrown from a portal mere hours earlier. Of course, Catra's shoulder had done a damn good job of involuntarily softening her own rough exit much to her displeasure and pain, and maybe Glimmer had been more careful with her own mother.

"It's good to see that you're awake," Angella spoke softly as the queen sat down in front of Catra on a pillow that she was sure wasn't there before. Catra bared her teeth and prepared for a fight, she knew from experience that princesses were tricky beasts and to lower one's guard could bring a quick end. Angela had been rather laid back in the void, but now that she had a kingdom to defend it definitely changed things. Annoyingly, the queen didn't even seem to take in Catra's defensive position, and merely waved over a maid. Soon enough Catra found herself sitting in front of a spread of cakes and two cups of a weird brown substance that she'd never seen before. "I assume that you're hungry after everything."

Catra snarled and pushed away from the food, ignoring the pain from her shoulder from the abrupt action. She couldn't deny that she was hungry and that it had been a while since she had last eaten, but she knew it was foolish to accept unvetted foods from your enemies. "How do I know that you haven't poisoned anything here?" Catra asked accusingly as she eyed up the food before her. Sitting here hungry while food sat before her was more annoying than being patient. These rebellion princesses could be rather evil as well it seemed.

"Why would I poison the one who saved me?" Angella asked, rolling her eyes as if Catra had just asked a stupid question. However, at Catra's frown, Angella sighed and went for a different approach. "I don't do poison. If I wanted to get rid of you I would have done it while you were asleep. I'm providing food because you look famished and I want to at least try to be a good hostess."

Catra glared at her and watched as Angella merely looked at her with a disinterested gaze as the queen enjoyed her food and drink. After a few seconds of stalemate, Catra gave in, carefully reaching out for the nearest cake and shoving it into her mouth. The instant that the cake touched her tongue she spat it out, the sickly sweet taste still clinging to her. Angella didn't comment, but instead pushed over a tray of round crackers and gestured for Catra to take one. It took a while before she could, but eventually, Catra took a tentative bite into one before sighing and grabbing the whole tray for herself and made quick work of devouring them all.

"The tea is bitter and hot," Angella warned as she pushed over the liquid. "Just sip it. If you don't like it we have other things you can try. However, I've found that it's a good drink to calm the mind and bring clarity."

Catra cautiously picked up the ceramic cup, eyeing the liquid as she pondered it, before shrugging and cautiously sipping a small amount of the liquid. The bitter taste hit her, but before she could react she felt another odd taste join it. She quickly swallowed the strange substance before taking another larger sip, and before she knew it the cup was completely empty. "That's a strange drink." She commented, raising an eye at Angella. "What is it?"

"It's tea," Angella responded simply, sipping at her own drink with seemingly no care in the world. Catra just raised an eyebrow, forcing Angella to provide a more specific answer. "Boiling water infused with leaves from a plant."

Catra tried a few more of the food on offer before her. taking Angella's unspoken gestures to avoid the more sweet options. Soon enough she was more full than she had ever been in her life and was lying on her back, trying to pretend that her shoulder wasn't throbbing painfully from the effort.

"I have to admit, I had quite a few questions that I want to ask you, but I also recognize that you may not want to answer them," Angella noted as she settled her drink back down on the table and settling herself back in her own seat, giving Catra some much-desired space. "Can I ask you something?"

"It's not like I am in any position to stop you," Catra muttered sourly, her sore shoulder beginning to dissipate as she laid there, resting her eyes.

"Why did you do this?" Angella asked Catra couldn't help wincing at the soft tone. "You could have just passed the rebellion a message and none of this would have been your issue anymore. Surely you could trust that She-ra was strong enough to stop them from opening the portal."

"I wasn't trying to stop them," Catra replied as she rolled her eyes, staring at the ceiling above her. "I wanted revenge on Adora for abandoning the Horde, so I took away her battle and She-ra's reason for existence. And it worked perfectly. Getting revenge and killing Shadow Weaver and Hordak was a good bonus."

"You did this to make SheRa pointless?" Angella asked incredulously, rolling her eyes at the situation. "So let me get this right, you vanquished all who would threaten us, halted a literal army from taking over, and brought peace to our lands. You even managed to make the Horde enter peace talks with us. However, you claim you did all of this as a mere side effect to your real goal, trying to take away She-Ra's reason for existence. Is that correct?"

"Well, I couldn't beat her in a battle," Catra complained as she slumped over on the pillow, too tired to summon the effort required to shove the annoying queen out of the room. "So if I couldn't beat her, I had to hurt her some other way, obviously. I don't get why this is such a difficult concept for you goody-two-shoes idiots to get. I wanted Adora to know what it was like to have the one thing you care about taken away. All she cares about these days is that stupid sword and her stupid powers, so I made them useless. What is she going to do with a magic sword with no army to fight against? She loses, I win."

"I wonder if you really see your actions as some form of ultimate revenge?" Angella leaned closer to Catra's form, laying a hand on the feline's shoulder. She wasn't surprised to feel nothing but skin and bones hidden under the thin layering of fur. "I'm sorry to say, you didn't exactly get your revenge against the princesses. This is pretty much everything we hoped for."

"This isn't about your stupid rebellion, this is about me." Catra shot back, angry that they would so utterly ignore the brilliance of what she had done. "I didn't do any of this to help you. I didn't even do this to hurt you. Your stupid rebellion does not matter to me. I did this to hurt those who deserve to be hurt. Your survival was an accident, and an unintended one at that."

"You seem hell-bent on ensuring that we blame you for everything?" Angella commented, pulling her hand away from Catra's half-hearted bite. "Even though everything you have done this week has been incredibly beneficial to us.

"And you seem hell-bent on ensuring that you see me as some sort of good guy," Catra responded bitterly. "I'm not a hero. I didn't plan on saving you. I don't care what happens to the Rebellion. I don't care if every princess died. All I wanted was to get revenge on those who wronged me. You're the good guys, but I am not on your side. I am a bad guy. Just because I killed your enemy doesn't make me one of you stupid goody-two-shoe good guys."

"Who said that we were the good guys?" Angella chuckled. Catra paused and shot her a confused look, was the queen being deliberately stupid. "We've been at war with the Horde for over a decade. I can't pretend that my side never did anything bad. It's war. Many have died for bad reasons. Neither the Rebellion nor the Horde can say for even a second that they were fighting from a place of good. We all wanted to win. We all wanted the other side to be eliminated. There isn't much room for a good or bad side in conflict. I might say that my side had the moral high ground, but even that is hard to justify."

"You're all princesses and stuff. You have the be the good guys." Catra protested.

"Why?" Angella asked. "Why assume that the world is perfectly black and white?"

"Because it's the only way that any of this makes sense," Catra yelled, shoving the food away from herself, uncaring that the spread fell ruined to the floor. "If there is no good and bad, then Adora didn't need to leave me behind. If you aren't on the side of good, then Adora didn't need to leave the Horde. She could have stayed with us, with me. The only way any of this makes any sense is if I am on the bad side, and Adora left to go be on `the good side. I refuse to believe that she could ever leave me for any other reason, and I am not going to let you take this away from me. I don't care about what happens to me next."

"Surely you don-" Angella tried to cut in.

"I made my peace with this a long time ago." Catra shot back, before slumping over in her bed, the energy stolen away from her. "I don't get to have a happy ending. Be it death or prison. I'll be honest, I never really planned on living this long to find out what was at the end of the road."

"What if I could give you a way out?" Angella asked quietly. "A way to let you live."

"I wouldn't take it," Catra muttered, refusing to even look up at the queen. "I don't have a future. I am an enemy of Brightmoon, a reject from the Crimson Waste, and a defect from the Horde. If you let me leave today I would have nowhere to go. So I will stay here and face up to the repercussions of everything I have done. Happy? "

"So be it." Angella smiled sadly and pulled herself back to her feet with care. "In two hours you will be brought to my court and you will have to face the result of everything you have done."

Catra refused to even look at the queen, still trying to keep some small semblance of control over herself. If she was going to die, she was going to do it with as much dignity as she could muster. She heard the doors close and allowed herself to fall into the soft bedding around her. "Two hours and this can finally end," She muttered miserably to herself.

Catra was not surprised to find out that Brightmoon's more casual leadership also extended out to their schedules. It somehow took closer to three hours before she heard the tell-tale sound of armor shifting signaling the arrival of her armed escort. She pulled herself to her feet carefully, wincing as her sore body made its discomfort known, as she tried to put on her best casual stance. However, her mock disinterest was shattered when the door to the chamber opened as she found herself face to face with Adora fully changed in her She-ra form. She was quite proud of how well she suppressed her wince at the sight of the overpowered goddess before her.

"Hey Adora, I guess you're here to escort me?" Catra asked carefully. Though even as she said it, she knew that there was something else clearly at play as Adora didn't have her sword with her and no armor adorned her at all. Instead, the armor she had heard was from the two guards standing behind her.

"Not exactly," Adora replied sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her neck. "Glimmer thought that you weren't going to do a good enough job defending your act-"

"So she got you to defend me," Catra cut in angrily. "For once, can't I just do something without someone else calling me an idiot and trying to st-"

"I'm not defending you," Adora yelled back at Catra. "The Queen just thought that you should know that the result of this trial is going to affect more than just you. You're not the only Horde soldier who has done an awful lot of questionable things. Scorpia and Entrapta deserve to have the best chance to be judged fairly, and they aren't the only ones. My position here isn't exactly perfect, I was brought up by the Horde as well. If you prove yourself to be beyond help, they are going to be questioning whether I am. So stop thinking about just giving up yourself, and think about protecting everyone from the Horde."

Catra fell silent, the complaints falling silent as she realized what Adora had just said. She couldn't believe that the queen had once again decided to try and control her life, so much for her chance to finally be able to control her own life. Instead, she was once again being controlled by someone who thought that they knew better than she did on how she could live her own life.

"She thinks that I'll defend myself, to defend you and the others?" Catra asked in disbelief. She couldn't help rolling her eyes and the stupidity of the whole situation. Unfortunately, Adora looked rather worried about the whole thing. Their relationship might have been incredibly strained, but Catra couldn't just ignore her worries "Look, Adora. You have nothing to worry about. Queen sparkles isn't going to ever let you be punished for something you didn't do. You've basically been their only saving grace for over a year. They owe you basically everything for risking your life protecting their stupidity."

She pulled herself to her feet and stepped closer to Adora, resting a hand on her sorta friend's shoulder. "I'm going to be thrown into a prison for the rest of my life, that's certain." She told Adora simply. "They would never do that to you. If they do, then they are no better than the Horde and I'll take care of them as I did with Hordak and Shadow Weaver. Okay?"

Adora was shooting Catra quite an odd look and was clearly uncomfortable with what she had just said, a fact that was made worse by the shuffling of the guards behind her. Catra would be the first to admit that maybe telling some loyal guards that she was planning on committing regicide wasn't the smartest idea she had ever had. "You two can just pretend you didn't hear that," Catra told them with a wave of her hand, though internally she was wincing at the stupidity of that. Hopefully, they would just think that the girl who killed two leaders of the Horde was just joking about killing their queen.

"Catra, this isn't a joke or something you can pretend won't happen," Adora told her, her voice noticeably wavering from nerves. "You can't just ignore what is happening here and give up. You deserve more than that. But if you give up, they might have no choice but to imprison you."

Catra lowered her eyes at Adora's nervously smiling face. "Seriously?" Catra asked annoyed at Adora's stupidity. "I nearly killed Brightmoon's queen, helped torture its princess, and personally led every major attack against your Rebellion over the last two years. What exactly do you think is going to happen? Just imprisonment would be merciful."

"You aren't the only ex-horde soldier, Catra," Adora replied with a groan. "Sure, this isn't going to work out perfectly for you, but they aren't just going to throw you into a cell for the rest of your life. That isn't how they do things here."

"Fine, think what you want," Catra muttered as she moved past her, the two guards standing aside to let them begin the short journey to Catra's end. "Let's just get this over and done with." Adora quickly caught up with her and the two walked in relative silence, only the sound of the quiet metalling shuffling of the guards' armor behind them interrupting it. However after a minute Catra couldn't allow the silence to remain, and if she was going to be locked up forever she really had to ask. "Why are you all tall and gold at the moment? If you're really going to be helping me, shouldn't you also not be in your She-ra form?"

"I'm not helping your defense." Adora sounded rather annoyed with Catra. "They aren't going to let me in there. Glimmer and Angella actually agreed on something for a change and overruled me. Sorry." Silence fell once again as they continued their short journey, soon reaching the rather ominous doors that stood between Catra and the Council chambers. "Good luck, Catra."

"I'm not going to need luck, Adora." Catra sighed to herself, resting her hands on the doors' handles. She looked back at Adora, taking in the worried face she was shooting her way. Catra knew that she couldn't just ignore her friend when she was like that. "Whatever happens, I deserve what comes my way. No matter the outcome, it would still be better than any punishment Shadow Weaver would have given me. So don't worry. This literally can only be an improvement over that."

And with that Catra shoved open the doors to face her end.

Like everywhere else within Brightmoon, the Council Chambers were irritatingly bright. So bright that Catra was forced to actually squint as she entered the chambers to avoid getting completely blinded. The solder within her screaming out that she was walking directly into a trap. She wasn't happy to walk into the chambers and find herself face to face with those she had attacked in the past. Naturally, she barely held back a grown as she saw the princesses assembled before her.

"It's about time the furball got here," A young and annoyingly whiny voice called out from nearby. Catra turned and was unsurprised to see Frosta, the youngest of all the princesses, sitting in a slump and looking like a bored eleven-year-old, mostly because she was, in fact, a bored eleven-year-old. Of course, as soon as she locked eyes on Catra, she perked up in a worrying amount of glee. Catra groaned, so apparently that made it four princesses she would have to put up with for this farce of a court.

"Shut it before I shut you," Catra snarled back, receiving an unimpressed face and a rude gesture that was entirely inappropriate for a child to make.

"Stop arguing you two." Glimmer called out, a clear edge of exasperation creeping into her voice. Clearly, Catra was not the only one who had been trying her patience today. She gestured for Frosta to sit back down, audibly giving a sigh of relief as the youngster complied with the unspoken demand. "Alright, Catra. You are here to be judged on your actions both while within the Horde, and your actions after. Each princess here today will represent those that have been affected by your actions and will provide individual sentences that will hopefully address everything owed. I assume that I don't need to introduce everyone else here tonight"

"I know them all." Catra rolled her eyes before pointing at each princess in turn. "Happy, Sarcastic, and child" Perfuma didn't look all that put out by the inappropriate description, though Mermista and Frosta were decidedly less happy about it.

"Would you please take this seriously?" Glimmer had advanced to rubbing her face into her palm, clearly regretting her decision to deal with Catra. "This is an important ceremonial court to ensure that the remnants of this war are properly dealt with to avoid repercussions from our respective kingdoms. So take it seriously and actually do what is required of you instead of what I expected of you."

"Just hurry up and sort it out. We all know this trial is a farce anyway." Catra shot back in irritation over Glimmer's annoyingly extensive speech. "I'm here to get judged, not bored to death through a neverending lecture. So hurry up and tell me that I'm going to be locked away already."

"Do you honestly think we're going to do what you want us to do?" Frosta shot back, just as angrily. "You're here to face our judgment for your actions. You might want us to throw you in a pit and forget about you, but we're not going to let you get away with everything that easily. So shut up, listen, and accept the sentences that we are going to hand out."

Catra glared back but wisely kept her mouth shut, though it took a fair amount of effort to bite back the retort sitting on her tongue. Sure, she wanted them to hurry up and sentence her to oblivion, but from the glares, she was receiving from the princesses assembled before her soured her mood. Adora would be pretty annoyed at her if the others killed her because she couldn't hold her tongue for a few minutes.

"Okay, now that we have the greeting out of the way I am going to outline the actions attributed to Catra's actions." Glimmer began before Catra cut her off.

"Look can't we just skip to the decision part already," Catra complained. "Everyone knows what I did."

Glimmer took a deep breath and stared up into the ceiling, muttering something quietly to herself. "If you want to, we can skip to the next step and just make our individual assessments against you, would you prefer that?"

Catra shot a sardonic look and rolled her eyes, gesturing for Glimmer to continue.

"Okay." Glimmer turned to the other three princesses beside her. "Write down what you believe she deserves and I'll provide a summary before we issue the result, agreed?" The three other princesses merely nodded before dutifully began writing down their decisions, Frosta pausing and raising an eye as she studied Catra.

"Stop glaring and hurry up and sentence me to imprisonment," Catra growled at her.

"They aren't allowed to talk to you while recording their judgments." Glimmer responded, scrawling out her own decision and not even bothering to look up at Catra.

"Aren't you doing the same?" Catra pointed out, smirking at the clear hypocrisy on display before her.

"Shut up." Glimmer muttered with barely any effort before finishing her assessment with a signature, folding the card in half to hide her words. Soon enough all four princesses were finished and Catra once again was their focus.

"Okay, we will be issuing you a summary assessment however I think there is something rather important that you seem to have really not understood." Glimmer told Catra, not even bothering to keep the disdain from her voice. "You are here to be judged, but probably not to the criteria you expect. Things aren't that straight forward when you are at war."

"I nearly killed your mother, I ordered the attacks and personally led the attacks on Brightmoon and Salenias. I already know I'm getting locked up for a few years at least." Catra replied with an eye roll. "If this is some effort to make me apologize for my actions, just know that I am never going to."

"We're not here to talk about those attacks." Glimmer pointed out awkwardly. "See this is why I wanted to spend some time explaining what we are doing here. We're not here to punish you for anything you did against the Rebellion when following the orders of Hordak, or really even the attacks you decided on and followed through. We're here to judge whether your actions during and after the war went beyond what you needed to do to support your side. We're here to determine if you committed any war crimes, not whether you fought against us."

"What's the difference?" Catra asked, completely lost where they were going with this. "I attacked you and your friends. How does it make any difference?"

"You attacked us out of some misguided effort to support the Horde." Glimmer explained with a huff. "It was war. I can't just write off everyone in the Horde because they were unlucky enough to be stuck on the losing side of this stupid mess. Honestly, most of the Horde was brought up from childhood to fight against us, I can't for an instant pretend that any of you were in a position to leave it, or even know there was another side to join. I can't even pretend that my side is perfect and that we are the right ones in this whole thing. All I know for sure is that we won, and the Horde lost. So I am in a position to better judge whether your conduct during the war constituted a real definable crime."

Glimmer winced as Catra glared at her. "Look, you did a lot of bad things during this war. But none of them really got anywhere close to a true crime against war. You didn't enslave children, you didn't torture captives, you barely even killed anyone."

"I tried to destroy all of reality." Catra shot back, momentarily wondering whose side she was supposed to be on in this debate. "That counts."

"If you intended to destroy all of reality and succeeded, I might agree. But you failed, thankfully." Glimmer replied, biting her lip as she ran through Catra's words. "I'm not entirely convinced that you were trying to destroy all of reality, you just were stupidly reckless and negligent. So we're in a bit of a difficult position to properly assess your actions. Hence why the other princesses are here to help me decide."

"So what have they decided then," Catra asked, her mouth twisted as she pondered Glimmer's words. "A few months of imprisonment and community service? That isn't enough for nearly destroying all of reality. It's barely a punishment at all."

Glimmer rolled her eyes and gestured to Perfuma, who passed her slip of paper to Catra. "You attacked me a few times, but I feel that this is a good response to what you did," Perfuma told Catra with a soft smile.

Catra raised an eyebrow and took the slip of paper from Perfuma, shaking slightly as she held a quarter of her future before her. She swallowed nervously and carefully unfolded the slip of paper, trying her best to stop herself from shaking. Was she going to lose everything again? Was she going to be humiliated? She opened the paper and lifted up to her view before frowning as it came into view. The paper was completely blank. She checked the other side and found it too equally blank. Wordlessly she looked back at Perfuma in confusion.

The princess merely shrugged. "You personally did nothing to me or my kingdom. The few attacks I did experience were led by us into your territory except for the attack on Brightmoon. However, even that attack didn't violate any of our laws that apply during the war. So I have no sentence to give you. The most I can say if that I'd prefer a day warning if you want to enter my region so I can ensure my people are aware of your presence."

Catra had no words, her face a picture of confusion as she let the paper drop from her grip, returning her focus back to Glimmer, however, the sparkling princess didn't say anything, merely gesturing for Mermista to provide her judgment. This time Catra didn't get passed the paper, Mermista instead opting to open it and show her that the paper was indeed blank as well. Mermista said nothing, merely rolling her eyes and tossing the blank sheet to Catra before getting back to her feet. "I'm going to get a drink." She muttered before leaving, seeming uncaring about the look of irritation shot her way from Glimmer.

Catra blinked a few times before turning to Frosta, suddenly realizing that antagonizing the young ruler was about to royally bite her. "My paper isn't blank," Frosta responded with a smirk, Glimmer having the decency to look worried at her words. "I thought about everything you did, how you ruined my party. I have to admit that none of it really counts as a war crime, but it still annoyed me. So I have a little bit of revenge that you are obligated to follow to the letter. Enjoy." With those words Catra found herself looking at one of the more horrifying punishments an eleven-year-old could come up with.

"You do realize that I killed Shadow Weaver by tearing our her through with my bare claws, right?" Catra asked as she glared at the young princess. "I could always do the same to you."

"Please, that barely even counts as a punishment. I'll even give you a month to do it." Frosta shot back, Catra groaning in response. "You have no choice in the matter."

"I am not kissing Bow, that seems like more a punishment for Bow than me anyway," Catra complained as she tried to ignore the laughter coming from Glimmer and Perfuma that was clearly triggered by her discomfort. "Oh shut up. You're just annoyed you didn't think of anything to write down."

"Oh cheer up Catra." Glimmer chuckled as she pulled out her own judgment. "My paper isn't blank. After all, I am the only one who experienced an actual war crime connected to you. I was tortured after you kidnapped me, and you are the direct reason my mother was nearly erased from existence." Catra winced at the accusatory tone thrown her way, and for the torture reminder. At the time she had just been relieved that someone else was getting hurt for a change.

"At least someone's going to punish me," Catra muttered.

"Unfortunately you had to make this much more difficult than it needed to be by killing the person who tortured me and giving me a method to save my mother. You also were not in charge during my interrogation so even that doesn't fall on you. " Glimmer continued with a mock sigh. "Then you made everything a muddled mess by saving everyone, forcing a peace between the Horde and the Rebellion, and basically doing everything you can to fix every problem we had. So you've made working out a sentence much more difficult than I expected. So here if my final judgment." Catra steeled herself and tried her best to be as stoic as possible. She had basically torn Glimmer's family apart, she knew that leniency was unlikely.

"Catra, you have committed a lot of acts that have made you the undisputed enemy of the rebellion. However, you have also managed to achieve something that we never thought possible, a cease-fire between the Horde and us." Glimmer sounded rather exasperated by the whole mess. "So as part of my judgment, I have to be aware of any potential dangers that you may represent, as well as the safety of others within my kingdom. I also have to understand the political choices that sit waiting behind the verdict. There were quite a few who agreed that you deserve imprisonment, but life isn't that simple. After taking everything into account, including your own demands for personal retribution, I have determined that you failed to commit anything that reached the height of being a genuine war crime. However, your lack of apology or remorse for your actions that led to the temporary loss of Angella shows that I can't simply allow you to be free."

"So what are you going to do?" Catra asked, annoyed with the wandering speech, wishing that the annoying queen would get to the point. "Am I banished, imprisoned, cast into eternal sleep?"

"Stop interrupting, also that sounds horrible. No, we are not going to kill you." Glimmer sighed unfolded the paper and held it out for Catra to read. "My judgment is not something you want, but it is definitely something you need. You are hereby ordered to remain within the grounds of Brightmoon and attend daily meetings with Angella or myself where we will require that you answer questions and work through your answers."

"You've sentenced me to a year of therapy?" Catra asked, her fur bristling in irritation at the mere idea. "I am not some weak idiot who needs to talk out their feelings. I am a Horde Commander who h-"

"Who has been raised as a kid to be a soldier and who had precisely no concept of how to be a functional member of society." Glimmer yelled over her, cutting Catra off. "You're not even going to be the only one I give this order to. I'm going to be forcing Adora to do this as well, though she will probably do it voluntarily if you're doing it as well."

Catra remained silent as she read over the schedule that Glimmer had given her. Was this really how this was all going to end? "Isn't there any other option at all?" Catra asked, barely able to keep herself from sounding pathetically desperate.

"The other option is to have Scorpia as your therapist." Glimmer offered.

There was a long silence before Catra gave the only response she could.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Glimmer."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I barely managed to finish this before Netflix showed up with Season 4 ready to make everything I wrote here completely inaccurate.
> 
> I have to be honest, the ending of this was really not where I was planning on taking it. I was trying to determine a suitable response for the others to take to deal with Catra's attempts at avoiding being redeemed, and accidentally worked out that it was a lot more confusing in reality what would happen in a real war.
> 
> I'm not saying anything I wrote is accurate, and I took a fair few liberties to make the ending closer to what I intended, but it hopefully conveys the idea that there wasn't meant to be a good and evil side. Just a winner and a loser.


End file.
